From Chela Amadio, ales@wamani.apc.org, Electronic News Service. Tel (54 1) 581 01 79, Fax (54 1) 382 90 95

"Glow-worm of the world, unite, so that in their blind night, men would only stumble out of tenderness". Those words were uttered at the opening of the Third National Gay, Lesbian, Transvestite, Transsexual and Bisexual Conference, that took place at the Psychology University, in Cordoba, Argentina, April 10 and 11, 1998. Conference organizers were local groups A.Co.D.Ho (Association Against Homosexual Discrimination) and "Like the Iguanas" (Lesbian group). Almost 250 people attended.

If there was something good and nice right from the beginning -- besides poetry -- it was the fervent and diverse presence of group representatives from cities in many different parts of the country, like Rosario, La Plata, Comodoro Rivadavia, San Juan, Cordoba, Buenos Aires (also neighbors from Uruguay and Chile); the warm and enthusiastic presence of individuals from La Rioja, Corrientes, Salta, Tucuman, Buenos Aires, and those from Cordoba who dared to come. Right after the introductions, enthusiasm turned to work proposals and agreements like:

• To eliminate the word "National" from the Conference title, aimed at eliminating borders and starting to dismantle those categories separating us and promoting false oppositions. From now on, a challenge and a learning opportunity we are committed to and from which we will be held responsible.
• To rotate each year the order of the identities on the Conference title. So, next Conf. will be Transvestite Transsexual Bisexual Lesbian and Gay, and so on. None will have the privilege to stand for ever in the first place.
• To go ahead with the national campaign to amend the Penal Code in such a way as to criminalize all acts of discrimination (specifically mentioning sexual orientation and identity among the causes). Our work will be focused on gathering support and put pressure on the Parliament until the amendment is passed.
• To name the Conf. "Pocha, Marcela and Marion" honoring three transvestites who died in 1997. Those three victims of institutional violence stood as a symbol of transgender struggle.

Workshops unfolded during almost two days, allowing us to acknowledge and explore what is happening to us, what are we doing, who we are, where do we want to go from here, with whom, what for and why to be an activist, how many things still to be created, how diverse our TTBLG community is. A few examples of workshops:

"To exclude is to love not" (by Mothers, Fathers, Friends and Family Members of TTBLG people from Rosario);
"The liberating voice of faith facing the power of structures" (by Fernando Frontan, Ecumenical Meeting for Sexual Minorities Liberation, Uruguay);
"How to break free from guilt and resentment" (Martin Arguinarena);
"It is said about me: where do myths and gossip in GLTTB communities come from" (Lesbianas a la Vista, Buenos Aires);
"National and international legal proposals concerning our communities" (CHA-Gays DC, Buenos Aires);
"Why is it that, even though I am at risk, I failed to take care of myself?" (Raul Resnik);
"Parents of gay children: adjusting and accepting" (Irma Fisher, PFALG, Buenos Aires);
"Film debate on male homosexuality as a tool for reflection and exchange of ideas" (Lugar gay, Buenos Aires);
"From the closet to the mirror, from the mirror to the street: building lesbian visibility as personal and political power" (Lesbianas a la Vista);
"A Conference of 365 days" (Colectivo Arco Iris, Rosario);
"Transvestites and Human Rights" (Lohanna Berkins, ALIT, Buenos Aires);
"Our experience working with GLTTB populations on HIV/AIDS issues" (Colectivo Arco Iris);
"Lesbian groups in Argentina: a history" (Escrita en el Cuerpo, Buenos Aires);
"AIDS" (Grupo Humanidades, La Plata);
"Roma 2000. Massive Pride events"(CHA).

Unlike the two previous Conference, a huge amount of journalists from the mainstream media covered this event. They were visible and annoying: they had to be reminded several times that they couldn't just come in as they pleased and while we were working, that there will be a press conference at the end, that people giving interviews were not willing to perform a show for them, that only some of us were available for the press and none for the show ... And even though visibility for our words and deeds was great, it was tiring to handle such a demand while at the same time preserving a calm space for work or the enjoying of our free time.

Achievements:

• 1st National Transvestite Conference will be held in Buenos Aires next November 1, the same date of our Pride Parade.
• 1st Regional Transvestite Conference will be held also in Buenos Aires on December 29; trans people from Paraguay, Uruguay, Chile and Brasil - plus the locals - have already confirmed their attendance.
• Colectivo Arco Iris and Grupo Humanidades created an AIDS Working Party.
• "Como las Iguanas", first lesbian group in Cordoba -also opened to bisexual women- was created.
• Trans sisters from Cordoba created their own organization, "Union de Travestis de Cordoba".

Emotions and passions, disappointments and tantrums, hard to put on paper and accurately portray, stormed through us. Each attendee lived his/her own Conf. and there was another Conf. that belonged to us all. All the work and effort was worthy the pain and the laughter. We have only started in our path, there is still so much ahead. "The pains we still have are all the freedoms we lack", said the FUA (Federation of Argentinean University Students) in their support letter. And they are more than right. Many of our pains come from the outside, others from the inside. The long ending plenary was hardly fought and impassionate, and not everyone was happy with the next location, and certainly we all should be very unhappy with the way we arrived at it, with so much useless screaming that mistakes conviction for aggressiveness. There we stumbled, and not out of tenderness, but it did not stop us from later parading through the astonished streets of Cordoba, and that was the right place for all the screaming and chanting: liberating us from silence and denial, lighting up the night.

The Fourth TTBLG Conference will be in San Juan; up to then, we will keep working and in the move.

Back to IFGE Home